SKcats fleet. Full weeb spec on the GS300.

[stuboy]

35 minutes ago, Skcat said:

Sold the suzuki today to a forum member! Sadly I took this aweful photo for the last one. 

And the new ride:

A 2008 chevy epica, or a deawoo tusca (I think) the most boring modern car I've probably ever had. I've always fancied one as they are just a odd rare car here. Can get some photos at some point. Seems to go good, let's see how long it lasts! 

very insignia and huunnday

[Schaefft]

Very interesting indeed. What's the waft factor on these? Does it feel more like a Vectra or bigger?

[grogee]

13 hours ago, Skcat said:

Sold the suzuki today to a forum member! Sadly I took this aweful photo for the last one. 

And the new ride:

A 2008 chevy epica, or a deawoo tusca (I think) the most boring modern car I've probably ever had. I've always fancied one as they are just a odd rare car here. Can get some photos at some point. Seems to go good, let's see how long it lasts! 

I drove a six cylinder one once. It was entirely unremarkable. That is some first rate obscure chod there, a next-gen Sao Penza. What's the fault list like? Dibs when you sell it. 

[Skcat]

3 hours ago, grogee said:

I drove a six cylinder one once. It was entirely unremarkable. That is some first rate obscure chod there, a next-gen Sao Penza. What's the fault list like? Dibs when you sell it. 

Issues with it are:

The passenger mirror goes down when you put it in reverse then rarely goes back up again. 

The passenger electric window does not go down from the drivers side switch pack but works fine from the passengers side. 

The passengers interior door metal coating is flaking off. 

The alloys have corroded pretty badly. 

Both front and rear chevrolet badges have sunfaded and look naff. 

I've ordered a new window unit for the drivers door. A new passenger interior handle. And when the door card is off I will just unplug the passenger electric window so it stays where it is left. 

Other then that it's pretty good. Apprently it was the demo model (the dealer apprently could not sell any cars off the back of it) . As a result it's a pretty high spec. I think it has a subtle body kit. It has 17" alloys (it looks like all the rest have 16" alloys), climate control, full leather seats (most seem to be half leather), parking sensors, heated seats, auto lights, maybe auto wipers too.

Kinda looks like a fake impala, the colour is called "Denim blue" 

It had 69800 when I got it on Friday but now it's just hit 70k and drives just fine. I'm going to have a go swaping it for a van when I'm done with it but I'm not sure how much luck I will get with that.

[Skcat]

19 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Very interesting indeed. What's the waft factor on these? Does it feel more like a Vectra or bigger?

Missed that message! I've not really driven much modern cars. Feels what I imagine a vectra probably feels like. Quite dull, I get the feeling it was just meant to be as average as possible. It has independent suspension in the rear which is cool. Seats are fairly stiff but not uncomfortable. 

Does not feel anything like a body on frame car or the dodge does. 

Its fairly big but easy to drive, the steering is viarable. The stalks are pretty cheap feeling and the gear shifter feels like all the bushes are worn out already. 

[Kingofdnb]

Did you get the epica off someone on Reddit? I'm sure I saw it saying he couldn't get shut of it and I thought it was a beauty.

[Skcat]

31 minutes ago, Kingofdnb said:

Did you get the epica off someone on Reddit? I'm sure I saw it saying he couldn't get shut of it and I thought it was a beauty.

Yep, I apprently I was the first to view it! 

[Skcat]

That did not last long! Sold it too a forum member after tidying it up. 

Bought a citroen dispatch Mk1 as a replacement, A base 1.9D. 

[Skcat]

Been a busy one as of late. Washed the new van, looks like it has never been cleaned and looking at the roof was annoying as it was green. It is now all clean and got the inteiror scrubbed up nicely. Will get some photos soon!

Notice the silver grill, the headlight with water ingress and the other smashed headlight. Must have had a front end knock at some point. 

Worst issue was the leak on the interior, water was leaking through the antenna hole over the passenger compartment and on the seats. Bought a standard PSA mount and mast and just replaced what was left of the old one. The previous owner seems to have fitted a door matt as a gasket, but fitting a new unit probably seemed to seal it up nicely. 

Found a free pair of headlights on marketplace, mine are cracked so collected them and fitted them. They were not new, however they were not damaged like mine. Turns out the drivers side one was missing a bracket and was flapping about within it's space. Annoying as you need to drop the bumper to fit them. But far nicer once fitted.

While the grill was off I threw away the completely ruined air Intake off the bottom of the air box (which just dangled too the bottom of the engine bay). And fitted a ebay speical "cold air Intake" routed it behind the grill and screwed it so it would actually get fresh air. Maybe it's Placebo but that with a oil change makes it feel a bit more usable. 

All the bulbs seem to be aged and give diffrent levels of light so replaced them and took the number plate light fixtures and washed all the moss out them so they light the plate up properly. Makes it all look more tidy. 

Got some dynamatt cheap on marketplace and stuck it too the bulkhead. Was only £10 and dulled the rumble of the sheet metal. 

Fitted two new speakers in the doors as the old citreon ones had fallen to bits. Just £10. 

Fitted a pioneer radio with hands free and dab, had to fit a dab amp to get it too work though. Works great now though. 

Fitted a steering wheel adapter from Connects2 so the buttons would work. Sadly only half worked. Had to take one side apart where it appears someone dropped coffee inside it, sourced a working set of steering wheel controls and fitted them. £17 on ebay and I probably need to clean them now thinking of it. 

Then I had the airbag light coming on, the connection from the main van loom to the clock spring had somehow undone, reconnecting put the light right out! 

Fitted a new drivers mirror assembly, found one for £25, then the interior adjuster boot was missing so got a new one at the dealer for £5. While the door card was out I could vacuum all the broken glass out the drivers door. It must have had a break in at some point. 

The van has cental locking but not remote locking. I bought a generic remote locking kit from Ebay and fitted it. Works perfect and makes the van much nicer to daily. Well worth it for £10 and a couple wagos. 

Got a front floor matt and fitted it, it seems to be for a two seater version so had to trim it around the double seat base in the front, looks neat though. 

Fitted a ebay speical 1M led strip in the front cab and wired a small switch in place for it, fitted a 5M one in the boot and fitted another switch, can see what you are doing now rather then dealing with the typical 5w bulbs you normally get.

Changed the oil, oil filter, air filter and fuel filter. Was well overdue and the van drives a lot quiter now. I did stick some white spirit in the oil and fuel 50 miles prior but the oil still came out pretty thick! 

Removed all the crap from the Scuttle drains under the windscreen. This now means water drains out to the wheel archies and should prevent rusting. 

Replaced the gear shift gator and knob with a couple ebay specials, looks far nicer. 

Glovebox lid broken, refitted it with some screws where the little spigots it should pivot on should by, works fine for what it is! 

Dash bulbs where blown and cluster supports were damaged so the cluster fell back into the dash, meant it faced the ceiling rather then the driver. Changed all the bulbs and put some wood behind the cluster to support it, sadly I could not make a new bracket for the cluster and squeeze it in that space. But it does look much nicer now. 

Stripped the dash apart and refitted it with loads of screws thay were missing, means it does not rattle like it used too. 

Blower motor was not working, figured out it was the connection too the motor itself under the dash. Cleaned it up and got it working. 

Stuck some wiper blades on It as the old ones were past it. 

It had some carpet in the rear that was thrown in, I trimmed it so it actually fit the back of the van a lot better. 

Probably put about £200 into it so far excluding a set of alloys I bought! Will wait for the tyres on the steels to wear out before I put new rubber on the alloys and fit them, will be nice though as all four tyres on the van are currently different brands and age. 

The van had a lot wrong with it but most stuff to fix it has been little cheap things and it is really nice to cruise about in now. It feels like it had about 12 different little small faults that all came together and made in annoying to use. 

I will probably need to deal with rust under it next. Does not look too bad from what I've seen but I need to get on top of it. 

[Skcat]

After 6 months of the dodge dynasty odometer being at a freinds I've got it back all repairs and it works for the first time in half a decade. Took a while to stitch the dash back together as it should be! 

Only 0.2. Miles but that's as much as I can get away with for now, and proves it now works. 

Time to get some welding done and get it back on the road! 

[Justwatching]

Same issue with my Mustang. Is it common for yank cars? A friend repaired the odometer for me, but it broke again. Hopefully yours holds up better! I've ordered a new drive gear which should arrive in the New Year. 

[Skcat]

9 hours ago, Justwatching said:

Same issue with my Mustang. Is it common for yank cars? A friend repaired the odometer for me, but it broke again. Hopefully yours holds up better! I've ordered a new drive gear which should arrive in the New Year. 

Its a problem for all cars. It seems one part of the main drive tends to wear out before any other. I guess it acts as a mechanical fuse meaning one serviceable gear will always fail before the hard to get too parts fail. I bought mine from:

https://partworks.de/en/gearworks-de/

Everyone online told me it's really important to get every part of the old gears out the odometer, other wise the old chucks will tear up the odometer. Having a compressor would really help. This sounded like a delicate job so I got a pal of mine who does this stuff more commonly. 

[Skcat]

Looks like the dispatch has got to go! Just picked up a scudo with cruise control and aircon! Seems really rare on a mk1 so I jumped on it, I've got too do all the jobs over again however as all the same issue seem to exist on this one. 

[Skcat]

Been working on the Dynasty, fitted a new waterpump and thermostat. All original from 1990:

Then new engine mounts, also orginal. Will hopefully make it less clunky:

Got some more bits to do too it too get it road ready again! 

[Schaefft]

49 minutes ago, Skcat said:

Been working on the Dynasty, fitted a new waterpump and thermostat. All original from 1990:

Then new engine mounts, also orginal. Will hopefully make it less clunky:

Got some more bits to do too it too get it road ready again! 

Nice to see some action on it, it's so easy to forget who owned what!

[Skcat]

13 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Nice to see some action on it, it's so easy to forget who owned what!

It feels like I've forgotten I own it with how little it gets used. Spent today doing a automatic transmission service as I have no record of it being done, considering the pan was fitted with RTV I imagine it has been done at some point. No harm in getting it done again.

Filled it up with atf and Coolaint again and tested it out just now, pissing from the thermostat, will next thing I will sort, then it's on to welding. 

[Skcat]

So shortly after changing the waterpump the dodge stopped working. It took a lot of reading but I figured out the ecu was locked. This was because a old alarm system that had been disabled kicked back into life and told the ecu to stop firing the injectors after then engine ran for a few seconds. This was the issue I was having in 2022. I'm so glad it's now resolved! If anyone is intrested I can post about what it is. If you search "dynasty dies after 3 seconds" you will find dozens of posts but nobody quite figures it out. 

The belt was also squealing like mad due to the fact I had fitted it the wrong way around the altantor That is now sorted again, totally my fault. 

The boot warning light turned out to be a poor connection in the information center on the dash. 

Then onto the bodywork, it was worse then I hoped but got it sorted. 

Three more patches to do all on the same side, all far simpler! I've had to remove the air suspension pump and wiring to get to some of the rot! It should be all sorted very soon. Running out of items to fix on it! Maybe I can move onto the kawsaki motorbike soon as it's leaking fuel now! 

[Justwatching]

I assume the low-effort option was to throw a few hundred quid at it for a re-man ECU. Bit risky though - what if the new ECU gets locked up the same way. Or maybe not, I don't really understand what triggered this situation with the ECU thinking the car was locked.

So yeah, I'm kinda curious how you sorted it. Some kind of after-market alarm kit or feeding/grounding the right combination of pins on the ECU?

[Skcat]

23 minutes ago, Justwatching said:

I assume the low-effort option was to throw a few hundred quid at it for a re-man ECU. Bit risky though - what if the new ECU gets locked up the same way. Or maybe not, I don't really understand what triggered this situation with the ECU thinking the car was locked.

So yeah, I'm kinda curious how you sorted it. Some kind of after-market alarm kit or feeding/grounding the right combination of pins on the ECU?

So... On occasion I found the car would cut out after running for 2 seconds or so. People online say so much stuff, it could be a ASR (anti start relay) or crank sensor. 

I shorted the ASR and it made no diffrence. I also replaced to crank sensor and that made no diffrent but it did not even start when I unplugged it so I assumed it worked. 

People online said it could be the engine ecu is locked, but never confirmed. It turns out lots of dynasty and similar chrysler ecu's somehow fool them self into thinking the security alarm has locked the car... Even when the car is not equipped with the security alarm. 

I was sure my car does not have the alarm as the blinkers did not go off and it did not display any similar faults. 

Someone told me if the engine ecu might be locked but I will need a body control ecu as if I just change the engine ecu, it will get locked from the body control module, but if I change the body control module the now locked engine ecu will tell the body control module will learn it's locked. So I will need to replace both at the same time at a cost of around £500 (for good referbished units). 

I was not willing to spent that so I decided to do some research. I just could not belive a mopar introduced in 1988 would have ecu's that communicate. So I looked Into the diagrams and found every ecu has something called the CCD (chrysler collision detection). This Is like a earily form of canbus. Every ecu has a negative and positive connections and can communicate with each other. 

I think it's called chrysler collision detection as it was originally used for the new airbag system Fitted on these cars. But got used for loads of other things like the transmission. 

I then looked at the wiring diagrams and found the optional security module also talks to the other units via the CCD system. This meant I don't need a body control modual I need a alarm unit. It could then ecu then everything could work. 

To arm the alarm unit you push a button in the front and exit the car. Mine had this button but it did nothing. 

To unarm the alarm you need too unlock either the front doors via key, this earth's a wire that goes to the alarm unit and disarms the unit. 

I decided to check if I had this unit so removed the underdash panels and glove box to find.... I do have a alarm unit... I wish I knew that a year ago. 

A wire was self tapered into the dash cross member and was shorted Into one of the key cluster unlock signels. I cut the wire and the car went into alarmed mode and flashes it's indicators... So the alarm unit is capible of locking... I then ran a fresh wire to the same connection but made the splice far neater. This forced the unit to unlock, unlocked my engine ecu and the car has worked perfectly ever since. 

I have no idea why the alarm was not going off, yet it still locked the engine ecu! I suppose I will never know but it works now.

 

Search new yorker/dynasty/imperial engine cut out, and you find loads of people with this exact fault, yet most don't seem to ever figure it out. 

I can only imagine the dealers disabled their alarms when they were a couple years old, then when they are 15 or so years old they go a bit mad and start locking for some odd reason. But everyone says "my car does not have a alarm" as they never experence the alarm going off. 

[Skcat]

Been doing more work on the dodge, all welded up, indicators bulb changed. It has loads and only one being out makes it flash pretty fast. 

Fitted remote central locking which makes it much nicer to live. 

Treated all the metal work, ran the loom i removed and Refitted the air suspension pump. All back together again. Looks good!

I need change the front ARB bushes but i dont think it will make any difference to the way it handles. 

Mot booked for next monday wish me luck. 

[Skcat]

Mot is booked for tommrow, dodge had another blown bulb but this time it turned out to be a bad earth, hopefully i get a good pass. 

If it passes I will be ordering it a new set of whitewall trimd as these have past it. 

The new van has been slow sinse i bought it, really annoying as the 2.0hdi has been slower then the 1.9NA dw8. Started messing with it ans after unplugging the maf it is way faster. Im thankful it was that easy to diagnose. 

[Skcat]

First drive in a year! 

[Schaefft]

The Dynasty is looking great, such an unusual sight pretty much anywhere now. I'd still love to find an Imperial of that time.

[Skcat]

16 hours ago, Schaefft said:

The Dynasty is looking great, such an unusual sight pretty much anywhere now. I'd still love to find an Imperial of that time.

Thanks, Most people are drawn to the imperial however I really like the dynasty and diplomat. I love the way this one is such a high spec its trimmed up like an imperial.

I drove a non LE one once and they do seem basic. When you get the base one front seat is one bench and you need too slide the whole thing back and forth.

The LE gets you all the electric goodies you really want in one of these and much plushier seats. The front is still a bench but splits aparts electrically. You even get a auto dipping rear view mirror. 

[Skcat]

It passed! Advised on a cv joint boot and a oil leak. I think I have the parts already to sort those out. Finally can drive it again! Ordered the new whitewall trims to celebrate. 

Will need to focus on my bike and scudo van now. Always something to do! 

[Skcat]

Been busy working on my partners seat cordoba. It was leaking diesel from the pump, so we thought we would reseal it ourself.  Its a 1997 vario estate, just picked it up a couple months ago. 

After rebuilding the diesel pump it just would not run properly. Spent hours and hours, and rebuilt the pump twice but we did everything right. Then the engine locked up. We regretted starting the job but decided to just dig into it! Took the cam off and found a strangley damaged lifter:

Took the head off and found a bent valve:

Took a while too pull the lifter out, was worrieded we would mess the head up:

 

Then fitted two new lifters and a new valve, we susepct the issue was caused by crap in the intake falling into thr cylinder somehow, the intake was filled with carbon, took ages to clean out but took the time too port it all out.

Reseated all the valves, new stem seals, new head gasket, bolts, gaskets, seals the lot. 

Took the time to change all three engine mounts, presure wash the engine bay, drop the front engine cross member and paint that, strip and rebuild the turbo, clean all the intercooler pipes and cooler intself. Paint as many bits as possible to make it all look tidy.

Bolted it all togther and crossed our fingers, it had compression but still had pump issues. Messed around with it and got it running! Still needs some setup but it runs better then it has since we had it. I suspect it was down on compression before due to the poorly seated valves. 

All this because of a diesel pump leak!!! 

[Skcat]

Been very busy, but dynasty has been used as the daily and does well. Looks weird in the UK landscape. 

Just imported a set of four centre caps for the wheel trims, the old ones were pretty tatty. 

I'm feeling like making a change which is hard after the amount of work I've put Into it. Starting a buiness and maybe I should be about in somthing more efficient! 

[Zelandeth]

If you do end up seriously looking at selling it, please ping me a message nearer the time (assuming there's not already a queue) as I may well be interested.

[Skcat]

Been busy doing up a catfish camaro, getting close to finishing it, will do a big post. Exhuast just fell to bits and found it was made with a rover 25 back box. 

Found a Toyota GT86 Exhuasts for £10 and made a section out of that to get it through a MOT. 

Just find it funny a 5.7 lt1 camaro was breathing through a rover 25 1.1 back box! 

[Skcat]

Died on its test drive, then would not start, had to walk home and get another car then take the battery home. 

Was a nightmare, turns out it was the ignition moduel, needs replacing but now it runs again!